Carlo Bastasin and Marcello Messori: Isolation or Convergence: Italy on its way to the European Council Meeting of June 2018

The reform of the European Union and of the euro area has been at the center of the European leaders’ reflections ever since the most critical phases of the 2009-2010 crisis. At the time of the first rescue of Greece (spring 2010), the European Commission and a Task-Force established ad hoc and headed by President of the European Council Hermann Van Rompuy advanced large-scale proposals that led to the adoption of the European Semester, to the outline of the new Stability and Growth Pact, which focused on strengthening the public debt rule, and to the first examination of macroeconomic imbalances.